Plan of medical reform and reorganization of the profession, without subverting the existing colleges of physic and surgery : addressed to the Right Hon. Sir R. Peel, bart. / by Richard Carmichael.

Date:
1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Plan of medical reform and reorganization of the profession, without subverting the existing colleges of physic and surgery : addressed to the Right Hon. Sir R. Peel, bart. / by Richard Carmichael. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    1G be considerable, he can afford to pay a licensed apothecary for the purpose. It may be objected to this plan, that practitioners, instead of giving too much medicine, will, when they have no right to charge for it, give on the contrary too little. But I have no apprehensions on this score, knowing from experience that very little medicine may achieve a great deal of good : besides, the practitioner’s character is at stake, which will be a sufficient guarantee that he will not withhold any medicine which he may deem useful to his patient, from any selfish or miserable motive of economy. It may be objected also that I have not fairly stated the education which an apothecary receives, when I intimated that it may be limited to an “ apothecary’s or druggist’s shop, and not acquired in hospitals or dissecting-rooms.” It is true the Apothecaries’ Company of London, since they were vested by the act of 1815 with the extraordinary power (extraordinary it must be considered when conferred upon a mere trading company) to license practitioners in medicine, have laid down a curriculum of study highly creditable to that body. But I boldly assert that the due practice of pharmacy and medicine are incompatible ; and that it is in vain to expect that pharmacy shall be cultivated or practised as it ought, if there is not a corporation or college of pharmacy, the exclusive duties of the members of which shall be the preparation a nd compounding of medicine. These duties demand an intimate knowledge of chemistry, botany, and natural history,* pursuits sufficient to occupy the time of any one individual, without blending with them the important duties required by the practice of medicine and surgery.
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